Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,930, issued Jan. 5, 1988, discloses a composite image camera in which a transparent plastic block overlies a front wall of the camera housing including a flash emission window of a built-in flash device. Most of the flash illumination is intended to pass through the block toward a subject being photographed. A small amount of the flash illumination is channeled within the block to a tubular or elliptical bore in the block which is aligned with a taking lens. The channeled light and reflected light from the subject pass through the bore, the taking lens, and a graphics-bearing transparency covering a film sheet, to expose superimposed images of the graphics and the subject onto the filmsheet. Several problems can occur in this instance. For example, since the respective images of the graphics and the subject exposed onto the film sheet are superimposed, it may be difficult to distinguish each of the images in a composite photograph due to poor relative contrast. Also, the intermixing of the channeled light and reflected light from the subject adjacent the taking lens may cause flare spots to be formed inside the lens.
By contrast, prior art European Patent Application 0,499,742 A1, published Aug. 26, 1992, discloses a composite image camera comprising means for supporting a transparency with indicia or the like in registry only with a defined section of a film frame to enable an image of the indicia to be exposed onto the defined section of the film frame, and a taking lens for exposing an image of a subject being photographed onto a remaining larger section of the film frame. Since the respective images of the indicia and the subject are exposed onto the film frame side-by-side, rather than superimposed as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,930, there is no problem distinguishing one image from the other on a photograph. However, the composite image camera is not intended to be used with a flash device as in the U.S. patent.